"Salaam! Salaam! Salaam! How are you? How are you? I'm fine! Fine! Fine!" This is the full extent of my Oromifa language skills, but Memuna's exuberant repetition, as she clasped my hands in greeting, made it feel like I'd successfully navigated a full conversation. She is clearly thrilled to see us, excited by the chance to tell "the story of my success."

Memuna is one of many women in the Bale Eco-region that have benefited from micro loans from local Women's Savings Credit Co-operatives. In 2009 she took out a loan of 1000 birr (just under £40) to buy coffee. Six months later, when the market price had escalated, she sold it for 3000 birr.

Today she trades forest coffee and wild honey, and is responsible for a store in the local town that allows other women to trade natural forest resources. "I feel very happy because I am counting my money," she tells me as a customer comes to purchase coffee. "Before I was dependent on my husband, but now I can go everywhere."

the Local women’s Savings Credit co-operative Photograph: Ben Thurman

Her story was echoed by several women I spoke to. My last blog from Ethiopia was about Fatuma, a woman who used a micro loan to purchase butter and honey, reinvesting her profits in a donkey, a cart, an ox, and finally a small plantation. Not everyone has been successful, she admitted, but the majority are. The incidence of default, only once in almost 35 loans this year, further reinforces the success of female entrepreneurship in the forest.

Why are women more successful than men in business, I asked. "Women are more responsible," suggests Memuna. "If men get money, they just use it for chat [a local leaf that is chewed and acts as a stimulant] and smoking. Women are responsible for the family." Perhaps; although it may be wise to steer clear of narratives that emphasise women's inherent maternal, responsible traits.

After a week interviewing both men and women in Bale, the difference that I observed between males and females is one of attitude. After being denied economic independence by societal inequalities, savings cooperatives have suddenly opened up a wealth of opportunity for women, which they have grasped with an energy that was not discernible in the men that I spoke to. "You can just feel the enthusiasm Memuna has for her work," observed Matt, Whitticase, from Farm Africa.

This might be a lesson for societies all over the world, where women remain underrepresented in business, and the 'glass ceiling' excludes them from top positions. If women are suddenly granted the same opportunities in business, who knows what might happen?